Museums for the Environment and for Territorial Areas. From Museum as Cultural Identity to Museum as a driving force for Socio-Economic Development – Experiences and results in Northern Italy (1989-2009)

"The extensive debate on museums that has developed in Italy since the mid 1950’s is here summarised and evaluated through a long theoretical and professional study on environment and territory museum. This short presentation is based on the assessment of three museums dedicated to the Italian environment and territory: The National Mountain Museum, Fort Exilles, Piedmont; The Civic Museum of the Lagoon, Chioggia, Veneto; “E for Environment” Museum, Turin, Piedmont. Cultural Approaches in Museum Design: These three case studies are located in different geographical areas but share a very similar cultural background as well as educational and research intents. The three museums, following the guiding principles set up by the local and regional authorities, promote the concept of cultural territory which is still rather abstract and scarcely identified in its essence. At the end of the 1980’s the cultural approach towards territory underpinned a will for knowledge, experiential sharing and rooting in the collective consciousness of the territory. In 1990’s the concept of territory shifted to “place of value” as in collective fading memory and in non-renewable resource. In addition, the museum as institution has become an important local reality able to promote youth employment and flows of cultural and sustainable tourism. These factors are still playing an important role in the Italian and Mediterranean economic sector. Besides, since 1990’s the figure of the architect has acquired new managerial and cultural competencies, thereby well defined professional roles have developed. The achievement of these three projects focused on the use of abandoned buildings either off town centre (Chioggia), or placed in degraded industrial estates (Turin) or in very beautiful but inaccessible areas (Fort Exilles). Yet, the logical path and the immaterial space-time map relations of the individual territories were much more difficult to draw. The aim was to overcome the classical concept of museum as a container. The diffusion of multimedia and digital communication technologies applied to museums made it possible to involve the audience in a cognitive path rich in emotional and sensorial inputs, i.e. Museum of the Lagoon, Chioggia and the Mountain Museum, Fort Exilles. Last but not least, the educational role of museums from childhood to senior age. The need to combine cultural-scientific rigor with simple and effective expressive languages, i.e. “E for Environment” Museum, Turin, has minimised the risky approach of museum as a place of mere aesthetic contemplation. Conversely, an approach more focussed on knowledge and communications has been adopted, although to the detriment of the structure of the building that hosts the museum."